_The Suffocation of the Mother._
This, which if simply considered, will be found to be merely the cause
of an effect, is called in English, "the suffocation of the mother," not
because the womb is strangled, but because by its retraction towards the
midriff and stomach, which presses it up, so that the instrumental cause
of respiration, the midriff, is suffocated, and acting with the brain,
cause the animating faculty, the efficient cause of respiration, also to
be interrupted, when the body growing cold, and the action weakened, the
woman falls to the ground as if she were dead.
Some women remain longer in those hysterical attacks than others, and
Rabbi Moses mentions some who lay in the fit for two days. Rufus writes
of one who continued in it for three days and three nights, and revived
at the end of the three days. And I will give you an example so that we
may take warning by the example of other men. Paroetus mentions a
Spanish woman who was suddenly seized with suffocation of the womb, and
was thought to be dead. Her friends, for their own satisfaction, sent
for a surgeon in order to have her opened, and as soon as he began to
make an incision, she began to move, and come to herself again with
great cries, to the horror and surprise of all those present.
In order that the living may be distinguished from the dead, old writers
prescribe three experiments. The first is, to lay a feather on the
mouth, and by its movements you may judge whether the patient be alive
or dead; the second is, to place a glass of water on the breast, and if
it moves, it betokens life; the third is, to hold a bright, clean,
looking-glass to the mouth and nose, and if the glass be dimmed with a
little moisture on it, it betokens life. These three experiments are
good, but you must not depend upon them too much, for though the feather
and the glass do not move, and the looking-glass continues bright and
clear, yet it is not a necessary consequence that she is dead. For the
movement of the lungs, by which breathing is produced, may be checked,
so that she cannot breathe, and yet internal heat may remain, which is
not evident by the motion of the breast or lungs, but lies hidden in the
heart and arteries.
Examples of this we find in flies and swallows, who seem dead to all
outward appearances, breathless and inanimate, and yet they live by that
heat which is stored up in the heart and inward arteries. At the
approach of summer, however, the internal heat, being restored to the
outer parts, they are then brought to life again, out of their sleeping
trance.
Those women, therefore, who apparently die suddenly, and from no visible
cause, should not be buried until the end of three days, lest the living
be buried instead of the dead.
CURE.
The part affected is the womb, of which there are two motions--natural
and symptomatic. The natural motion is, when the womb attracts the male
seed, or expels the infant, and the symptomatical motion, of which we
are speaking, is a convulsive drawing up of the womb.
The cause is usually in the retention of the seed, or in the suppression
of the menses, which causes a repletion of the corrupt humours of the
womb, from which a windy refrigeration arises, which produces a
convulsion of the ligaments of the womb. And just as it may arise from
humidity or repletion, so also, as it is a convulsion, it may be caused
by dryness or emptiness. Lastly also, it may arise from abortion or from
difficult childbirth.
SIGNS.
On the approach of suffocation of the womb the face becomes pale, there
is a weakness of the legs, shortness of breathing, frigidity of the
whole body, with a spasm in the throat, and then the woman falls down,
bereft of sense and motion; the mouth of the womb is closed up, and
feels hard when touched with the finger. When the paroxysm or the fit is
over, she opens her eyes, and as she feels an oppression of the stomach,
she tries to vomit. And lest any one should be deceived into taking one
disease for another, I will show how it may be distinguished from those
diseases which most resemble it.
It differs from apoplexy, as it comes without the patient crying out; in
hysterical fits also the sense of feeling is not altogether destroyed
and lost, as it is in apoplexy; and it differs from epilepsy, as the
eyes are not distorted, and there is spongy froth from the mouth. That
convulsive motion also, which is frequently accompanied by symptoms of
suffocation, is not universal, as it is in epilepsy, but there is some
convulsion, but that without any violent agitation. In syncope both
breathing and the pulse fail, the face grows pale, and the woman faints
suddenly; but in hysterical attacks there are usually both breathing
and pulse, though these are indistinct; the face is red and she has a
forewarning of the approaching fit. It cannot, however, be denied that
syncope may accompany this feeling of suffocation. Lastly, it can be
distinguished from lethargy by the pulse, which is rapid in the former,
but weak in the latter.
CURE.
In the cure of this affection, two things must be taken care of:--_In
the first place_, nature must be stimulated to expel these hurtful
humours which obscure the senses, so that the woman may be brought back
from that sleepy fit. _Secondly_, during the intervals of the attack,
proper remedies must be employed, in order to remove the cause.
To stimulate nature, apply cupping-glasses to the hips and navel: apply
ligatures to the thighs, rub the extremities with salt, mustard and
vinegar, and shout and make a great noise in her ears. Hold asafoetida
to the nose, or sacopenium steeped in vinegar; make her sneeze by
blowing castor-powder, white pepper and hellebore up her nose; hold
burnt feathers, hair, leather, or anything else with a strong, stinking
smell under her nose, for bad odours are unpleasant to nature, and the
animal spirits so strive against them, that the natural heat is restored
by their means. The brain is sometimes so oppressed, that it becomes
necessary to burn the outer skin of the head with hot oil, or with a hot
iron, and strong injections and suppositories are useful. Take a handful
each of sage, calamint, horehound, feverfew, marjoram, betony and
hyssop; half an ounce of aniseed; two drachma each of coloquintida,
white hellebore and salgem; boil these in two quarts of water till
reduced to half; add two ounces of castor oil and two drachms of hiera
piera and make an injection of it. Or take two ounces of boiled honey,
half a scruple of spurge, four grains of coloquint, two grains of
hellebore and drachm of salt; make a suppository. Hippocrates mentions a
hysterical woman who could only be relieved of the paroxysms by pouring
cold water on her: yet this is a strange cure, and should only be
administered in the heat of summer, when the sun is in the tropic of
Cancer.
If it be caused by the retention and corruption of the seed, let the
mid-wife take oil of lilies, marjoram and bay leaves, and dissolve two
grains of civet in them, and the same quantity of musk, and at the
moment of the paroxysm let her dip her finger into the mixture and put
it into the neck of the womb, and tickle and rub it with it.
When the fit is over, proceed to remove the cause. If it arises from
suppression of the menses, look in Chapter XI, p. 102, for the cure. If
it arises from the retention of the seed, a good husband will administer
the cure, but those who cannot honourably obtain that remedy, must use
such means as will dry up and diminish the seed, as diaciminum,
diacalaminthes, etc. The seed of the agnus castus is highly valued as a
draught, whether taken inwardly, applied outwardly or used as a
suffumigation. It was held in high esteem by the Athenian women, for by
its means they remained as pure vessels and preserved their chastity, by
only strewing it on the bed on which they lay, and hence the name of
_agnus castus_, which was given to it, as denoting its effects. Make an
issue on the inside of each leg, four inches below the knee, and then
make lozenges of two scruples of agric, half a scruple each of wild
carrot seed and ligne aloes; three drachms of washed turpentine, and
make a bolus with a conserve of flowers. Eight drachms of castor taken
in white wine are very useful in this case, or you may make pills of it
with dog's tooth, and take them on going to bed. Take an ounce of white
briony root dried and cut up like carrots, put it into a little wine and
place it on the fire, and drink when warm. Take one scruple each of
myrrh, castor and asafoetida; four grains each of saffron and rue-seed,
and make eight pills and take two every night on going to bed.
Galen, from his own experience, recommends powdered agaric, of which he
frequently gave one scruple in white wine. Put a head of bruised garlic
on the navel at bed time, and fasten it with a swathing band. Make a
girdle for the waist of galbanum, and also a plaster for the stomach,
and put civet and musk on one part of it, which must be applied to the
navel. Take two drachms each of pulvis benedict, and of troches of
agaric, a sufficient quantity of mithridate, and make two pessaries, and
that will purge the matrix of wind and phlegm; foment the private parts
with salad oil in which some feverfew and camomiles have been boiled.
Take a handful of roseleaves and two scruples of cloves, sew them in a
little cloth and boil them for ten minutes in malmsey; then apply them,
as hot as they can be borne, to the mouth of the womb, but do not let
the smell go up her nose. A dry diet must still be adhered to and the
moderate use of Venus is advisable. Let her eat aniseed biscuits
instead of bread, and roast meat instead of boiled.
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